Comparing Race In Desires Baby And A Worn Path

Racism, in today’s world is not as frequent as it was in the 1900’s. Racism in the 1900’s was incredibly widespread, and the majority of white Americans were racially prejudiced against the people of color. Even though racism was widespread in the 1900’s it is currently grimaced upon and not exceedingly widespread at all. People of color are nowadays not cast off in today’s world, but are accepted like any other person. Racial disparity has been a notorious predicament in associations to moral ethics for long periods of time.

One of the first notable feature in “Desiree’s Baby is the naturalistic feeling weaved throughout the entire story. Desiree a young woman is damned by her own society just because of her possible African heritage. At this time in America having one-eighth African heritage was enough to put you on the bottom of the social caste system, especially if you were a female.

In “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, Chopin describes a story of an older woman, Madame Valmondé, coming to see her daughter, Desiree, who is married Armand Aubigny, and her baby. Mme. Valmondé, at first, is astonished at the appearance of the baby. Later, the baby herself shocks because of its dark appearance. Desiree later asks Armand why the baby is black. Then, Armand gets very angry, because Armand, a person who perceives he is of European race, has realized that he is the father to a black baby. Armand goes on to accuse Desiree of being black and being the cause of this perceived imperfection. A very distressed Desiree asks for Mme. Valmondé for help. Mme.

Désirée's Baby is story about two people who's baby separate racial appearance come into question their own background and ultimately their decisions as it pertains to society during that time. Armond at first site loved Désirée for her beauty despite being told her background. They were happily married until Désirée had her baby, after seeing the baby he began to see Désirée as ugly. According to society the color black was deemed as ugly and anyone who was black should be considered a slave. Sense he married and had kids with a woman whom he perceived to be black, he abandoned her out of fear of losing his families name, a name in which denotes his class in society. Armand's attitude toward Désirée demonstrates fear of society's racial and

(176). It becomes apparent that Armand?s actions and words greatly affect Desiree when she says, ?My mother, they tell me I am not white? (176). Desiree?s powerless situation can in many ways be blamed for her unresolved uncertainty about her racial identity.

Unfortunately, Armand’s over value of race rubs off onto Desiree. Not knowing her true race, Desiree cannot live with the dissatisfaction of herself, her husband’s disgrace, nor that fact that he does not love her or the baby anymore. She cannot awake from the nightmare that her life has turned into. She takes the baby and wanders out into a deserted field where she and the baby perish. Thus Armand is to blame for destroying his family because of his obsession with status and the white race.

The story Desiree’s Baby is about a young woman who is adopted by a two wealthy french creoles that live in Louisiana. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde adopted Desiree when she was found as a young infant by a pillar near the gate of their estate. The story then follows Desiree as she matures into a young woman and is married to a man named Armand whom which she loves very much. Armand and desiree soon have a child and both are extremely happy about the child but Armand soon pulls away both his compassion and happiness when he see’s something wrong with the child. Armand realises that the child is has some black in it, which happens to be the skin color of slavery. Shamed Armand blames Desiree for his child being part black seeing that Desiree’s

In Desiree’s Baby, many historical allusions can be found by examining the historical moment in which it was written in. The story consists of three characters: Desiree, her baby and Armand. The main conflict discussed in the story is that when Armand ,the baby's father, finds out that his child is of mixed blood, he can’t stand the thought of it. For since he was a young child, he was brought up to believe that skin color correlated with the value and purity of another individual. Therefore to with this new shocking reality, presses him to question what he truly believes. Yet in the process, Desiree loses sight of what she values and becomes overcome with guilt to the point of killing herself along with the baby. Nonetheless the story is

It was not until the very end of the story that she finally came realize who and what she looked like. She never noticed how similar they appeared and was shocked to realize that maybe her husband only loved her because of how similar she looked to the girl. Now she has to keep living with the thought of her husband only being with her because she looked so much like the girl. In the story “Desiree’s Baby”, Desiree was also faced with a troubling problem. Though she was white and her husband had the appearance of being white, their baby is black. It was not through the fault of Desiree that her baby was part black, but through the fault of her husband, Armand. Armand sends them away to Desiree’s mother’s but instead they head into the forest. Desiree and her baby disappear and are never heard of again. Soon after, Armand realizes that it was his fault that the baby is part black. When opening a letter, he reads, “I thank the good God for having so arranged

In the beginning of the story of “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, we understand that the baby had been left by her parents near a big stone pillar. Madame Valmondé is the mother who had found the baby. Desiree’s Mother happens to stop by to see the baby, “Madame Valmondé bent her portly figure over Désirée and kissed her, holding her an instant tenderly in her arms. Then she turned to the child. “This is not the baby!” she exclaimed, in startled tones. French was the language spoken at Valmondé in those days.”(Desiree 's baby) Valmondé is a mother that is shocked and is blatantly disrespectful, assuming just because the babies color is different doesn’t make it not yours. “Madame Valmondé had never removed her eyes from the child. She lifted it and walked with it over to the window that was lightest. She

The laws and policies that were put in place became a problem for the very same white man that made the laws so the white man felt the need to go against those laws to keep his child. The theory of racial formation sees the constriction of race as a contested process of on-going conflict Omi and Winant (1994:74). The theory of racial formation also insists the ‘reality’ of race despite its origins a social construction. ” race can be defined as a concept that signifies and symbolises socio-political conflicts and interests in reference is different of human bodies winant(2004:155).

It turns out the baby is of mixed blood and because of this, he shuns his wife and the child he was so proud of only days before. “He absented himself from home and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse.”(317). Armand was “the proudest father in the parish…it is a boy to bear his name.”(317). Additionally, he accuses Désirée of not being white (a crime against his family’s “purity”) which she adamantly denies. “It is a lie it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown and my eyes are gray, Armand you know they are gray. And my skin is fair,” “Look at my hand whiter than yours, Armand,”(318). She writes to her adopted mother and tells her of what is happening. Her mother tells her to return home with the child where they will both be loved, but Désirée is so shocked and disheartened she sets off towards a local bayou with the child never to be seen again. Armand has made the decision to lose his family in order to save his name and it’s too late to bring Désirée back. The irony is that the letter read by Armand from his mother reveals to him that it is he who is of mixed blood and not Désirée.

Eudora Welty, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, is an author who primarily writes about the American South. Her short story, “A Worn Path,” was written in 1941. In the story, Welty uses narrative techniques to develop a theme of the social discriminations of racism and ageism. Welty incorporates evidence in her short story of racism through symbolism. In the story, the title has meaning behind it that grabs the reader’s interest right away, “A worn Path” (Welty 1326).

Then, at the end of the book, Armand shunned Desiree because the baby was black, therefore Desiree was black, and he kicked her out of the plantation and asked to never come back. She leaves the plantation, but some readers of this story got the impression that Desiree to her baby out into the fields of Armand’s plantation and killed herself and the

“Desiree’s Baby” is a story about miscegeny in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period. Desiree is adopted by a wealthy family and eventually marries the man of her dreams. Armand is a wealthy slave owner who falls in love with what he believes to be the woman of his dreams. Desiree and Armand are happy and have a perfect life until the birth of their son. The uncertainty regarding the ethnicity of Desiree and her son causes a great deal of pain for Desiree. The pain she endures leads to a devastating end. The character I identify with most is Desiree. I can identify with Desiree because of her vivid portrayal of love, betrayal, and racism.